Social Media

I moderated a panel organized by IGDA Toronto and held at OCAD University on the political potential of video games. Here's the write-up and video:

Contrary to popular opinion - in the wake of recent violence in the US - not all games are about mindless, gun-based mayhem. Many games are being developed today that tackle broader, more meaningful issues: everything from environmental activism to food accessibility.

Join IGDA Toronto and a panel of industry experts for an evening dedicated to serious games: namely, games designed for a purpose other than just entertainment.

Moderator: Jesse Hirsh, CBC technology columnist.

My friend Daniel Joseph is a gonzo social media satirist. He loves to play with language, meaning, and context on various social media platforms, Twitter in particular. While I often discourage people from being too verbose and sharing the minutiae of their day, Daniel actually pulls it off. He's one of the only people I know who can turn the mundane into a kind of entertainment that within the context of 140 character updates is smart and fun.

For example Daniel often tries to add misinformation to an active twitter feed or event. In particular he wrote a rather funny and fictional play by play of BlackBerry's recent launch of their new operating system BB10:

Twitter has recently introduced a new video feature to their service called Vine. With a limit of six seconds or less, it emulates the brevity of a tweet, and has the looping characteristics of a gif. The hope is similar to the way a 140 character limit has in some cases evoked a new poetic rhythm to the internet, perhaps six seconds of video will add a profound vision into our various lives.

Today I had a fantastic time at Humber College in North West Toronto. I was invited to give a talk as part of their President's Lecture Series.

The topic was supposed to be social media and privacy. While this is certainly what I spoke to, I didn't want to address the topic as if we are victims. I wanted it to be empowering, so I used my current frame of "Getting Paid in the Knowledge Economy".

Rather than expose yourself by blindly sharing personal information, construct a persona that you deliberately put out into the world.

We talked about the value of personal information, and how to protect one's privacy.

I teach a course at the Academy of the Impossible called Getting Paid in the Knowledge Economy, and one of the primary topics is connecting our use of social media to our pursuit of professional success. With that in mind, here are four lesser known social media platforms that can help in this regard.

Re.vu

Fellow Academy faculty member Steph Guthrie brought this resume-replacement site to my attention. While many recognize LinkedIn as a dynamic resume, it is nowhere near as visually appealing as Re.vu. LinkedIn also tries to pressure any viewer of your resume to join, whereas Re.vu focuses on you, showcasing what you've done, and emphasizing what you wish to emphasize when it comes to your knowledge and experience. I haven't had time to setup my own profile but I'm pretty sure I will soon.

There were a flurry of news reports recently that highlighted a potential new source of revenue for Facebook, charging $100 to send a message to a (high-profile?) stranger. I use the word stranger as it would apply to people who are not in your social network, which suggests not a friend of a friend, but someone beyond your social graph.

Obviously this would be a fairly substantial move, especially if they could make it work. Just getting away with the notion that you have to pay postage on an email is revolutionary in and of itself. The idea that we would have to pay for email has often been brought up in anti-spam debates.

The problem however is that this flies in the face of the culture of free that the web, and especially social media, is built upon.

This past weekend was the third iteration of my Getting Paid in the Knowledge Economy course, and one of the things I preach to my students is the importance of regular writing, especially blogging. At the very least as a means of working on your word craft, but also as a way of letting the world into your head. You never know what other people will see and like.

One of my students and friends Neil Andersen shared an article that reinforces this point.

In Hollywood the search for creative talent and ideas knows no end, and the folks there are always hungry for more. Turns out their increasingly turning to social media as a source, especially blogs, as the more writing that is available, the more likely they're able to find what they're looking for, even if it is rough and requiring work.